Never seen this before -- all daemons and all user processes killed. Zap. It happened around 23:17 Sunday, Chicago time (that's when /var/log/* abruptly stopped). Any idea what might cause this?
I was ssh'd in to my Debian server and... disconnected. No problem, I was using *screen* to *vim* some *Catalyst* modules, so I'll just reconnect and reattach... connection refused. Wha? Tried telnet to port 22, no sign of life. Tried telnet to port 80, no sign of life. Went to the server room, logged in on the console: will@darth:~$ uptime 23:58:11 *up 583 days*, 3:03, 6 users, load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.08 So the server hadn't had a hard reset, still up 583 days. In /var/log/syslog there are the usual cron logs up to about 23:17 and then.. nothing. will@darth:~$ ps afx PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND 2 ? S< 0:00 [kthreadd] 3 ? S< 1:13 \_ [migration/0] 4 ? S< 29:21 \_ [ksoftirqd/0] 5 ? S< 0:32 \_ [watchdog/0] 6 ? S< 1:12 \_ [migration/1] 7 ? S< 77:19 \_ [ksoftirqd/1] 8 ? S< 0:02 \_ [watchdog/1] 9 ? S< 44:52 \_ [events/0] 10 ? S< 78:24 \_ [events/1] 11 ? S< 0:00 \_ [khelper] 44 ? S< 13:20 \_ [kblockd/0] 45 ? S< 0:40 \_ [kblockd/1] 47 ? S< 0:00 \_ [kacpid] 48 ? S< 0:00 \_ [kacpi_notify] 121 ? S< 0:00 \_ [kseriod] 161 ? S< 19:53 \_ [kswapd0] 162 ? S< 0:00 \_ [aio/0] 163 ? S< 0:00 \_ [aio/1] 642 ? S< 0:00 \_ [ksuspend_usbd] 647 ? S< 0:00 \_ [khubd] 761 ? S< 0:00 \_ [ata/0] 764 ? S< 0:00 \_ [ata/1] 765 ? S< 0:00 \_ [ata_aux] 774 ? S< 0:00 \_ [scsi_eh_0] 775 ? S< 0:00 \_ [scsi_eh_1] 877 ? S< 42:46 \_ [kjournald] 1301 ? S< 17:22 \_ [edac-poller] 1384 ? S< 0:00 \_ [kpsmoused] 1640 ? S< 0:00 \_ [kstriped] 1654 ? S< 0:00 \_ [ksnapd] 1681 ? S< 76:13 \_ [kjournald] 1682 ? S< 126:18 \_ [kjournald] 12642 ? S 0:09 \_ [pdflush] 19987 ? S 0:00 \_ [pdflush] 1 ? Ss 10:04 init [2] 11064 tty2 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2 11065 tty3 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3 11066 tty4 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4 11067 tty5 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5 11068 tty6 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6 12995 tty1 Ss 0:00 /bin/login -- 13077 tty1 S 0:00 \_ -bash 13107 tty1 R+ 0:00 \_ ps afx Freaky: init, that's process #1, isn't at the top? And all daemons except for getty were gone. All user processes including my screen sessions! and vim sessions!, were gone. Checking 'last' didn't show any suspicious activity. In kern.log there's only Jan 23 23:04:59 darth kernel: [64084756.601774] exploit[25161]: segfault at 10c00b ip 00000000 sp deadc01d error 6 Jan 23 23:05:08 darth kernel: [64084765.528734] NET: Registered protocol family 5 After a quick $ sudo bash # cd /etc/rc2.d # for x in S*; do sh $x start; done the server was back up and serving... and then the saddest sight of all, of course: will@darth:~$ screen -ls There is a screen on: 26279.pts-3.darth (06/19/09 21:54:31) (Dead ???) Remove dead screens with 'screen -wipe'. 1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-will. :( $ tail /var/log/messages Jan 23 22:56:26 darth -- MARK -- Jan 23 23:04:59 darth kernel: [64084756.601774] exploit[25161]: segfault at 10c00b ip 00000000 sp deadc01d error 6 Jan 23 23:05:08 darth kernel: [64084765.528734] NET: Registered protocol family 5 Jan 23 23:16:26 darth -- MARK -- Jan 23 23:47:02 darth syslogd 1.5.0#5: restart. So everything crapped out after 23:16, and I restarted it at 23:47. *Anybody got a clue as to what might have happened to kill all daemons and user-processes in one swoop? This has been a rock-solid Debian server for years...* will@darth:~$ cat /etc/debian_version 5.0.4 -- The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. -- J.P.Morgan